Defending Marriage in Boston
On Sunday, February 8, full-time
volunteers of the American Society for the Defense of
Tradition, Family and Property(TFP) joined more than 3,000
mostly-Catholic traditional marriage activists from across
New England who gathered in front of the State House in
downtown Boston to express their repudiation of same-sex
“marriage” and their support for the proposed
Marriage Amendment Protection Act, which would amend the
Massachusetts Constitution to codify marriage as only
between one man and one woman.
The traditional marriage rally and the
proposed amendment are a response to the November 18 Goodridge
vs. Department of Public Health decision of the Massachusetts
Supreme Judicial Court, which granted homosexual couples
the right to marry under the state’s constitution.
The decision is slated to take effect in May of 2004.
Sponsored by Your Catholic Voice, a
national grassroots pro-family group, several important
dignitaries spoke at the rally including Boston’s
Archbishop Sean O’Malley. As the last speaker at
the rally, Archbishop O’Malley predicted that marriage
as an institution would be weakened if the court’s
ruling is allowed to stand.
In a statement issued by Archbishop O’Malley
as a response to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court,
he decried the November 18 decision as “alarming”
and accused the court of casting aside what has been “the
very definition of marriage for thousands of years.”
Another key speaker was Raymond Flynn,
former mayor of Boston, former ambassador to the Vatican,
and president of Your Catholic Voice. Also at the speaker’s
podium were Sandy Rios of Concerned Women for America,
Robert Quinn, the former Massachusetts House Speaker and
attorney general, State Representative Philip Travis (D)
who wrote the proposed Marriage Amendment Protection Act,
State Representative Vinny de Macedo (R), and former state
justice Joe Nolan. Approximately 250 homosexual activists
counter-demonstrated across the street.
With an American flag and an 18-foot
red standard, TFP members passed out more than 2000 flyers
titled “Answering Ten Arguments Used to Push Same-Sex
‘Marriage.’” Refuting the sophistic
reasoning used by the homosexual activists, this four-page
flyer was warmly and eagerly received by the crowd, who
were noticeably enthusiastic by its straightforward logic
and reasoning against homosexual “marriage,”
in light of Catholic doctrine. This flyer also announced
the publication of the American TFP’s latest book,
Defending a Higher Law: Why We Must Resist Same-sex
“Marriage” and the Homosexual Movement,”
an analysis of the homosexual movement in America and
Church doctrine on homosexuality
